1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure of a portable electronic device or a game controller, and in particular, to a structure of buttons provided for the portable electronic device or the game controller.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are some game controllers having not only buttons on a front face of the controller but also buttons even on one of side faces (that is, faces other than a front face and rear face) of the controller in order to realize various inputs for more and more complicated games. Such buttons on the side face have, for example, a horizontally long shape and are also called as an L-button and an R-button (hereinafter, also collectively referred to as “LR-buttons”). The LR-buttons are generally pressed down with forefingers of a user gripping the controller.
A conventional structure of each of the LR-buttons is shown in FIG. 13A. As shown, a horizontally long button body 200 is tiltably supported by its one end 206 as a supporting point. A switch contact 204 is attached to a rubber 202 positioned below the button body 200. When a user presses down the button body 200, the button body 200 slightly pivots about the end 206 to move downward as shown in FIG. 13B, and then the button body 200 pushes the rubber 202 downward to allow the switch contact 204 to be electrically conducted. When the user takes the finger off the button body 200, the button body 200 is pushed up by repulsion of the rubber 202 to put the button body 200 to its original position (for example, see Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. H4-42029).
However, since the size of the user's hands operating the controller greatly differs depending on the age, the sex or the like, the position of the fingertip on the LR-buttons also varies. In the case of the LR-buttons having the above-described structure, when the user presses down the vicinity of the end 206 of the button body 200, the button body 200 moves downward insufficiently. As a result, in some cases, the switch contact 204 is not electrically conducted as expected or the user can hardly be sure if the LR-buttons are sufficiently pressed.